Your physique and physical appearance are influenced by the definition in your muscles and the fat on your body. Every person's body carries some fat -- but consistently eating more calories than you burn in a day can cause your body fat percentage to increase. Building muscle and burning fat can be done at the same time, but they require different approaches to exercise.
Strength Training
Strength training provides your muscles with high levels of weight-bearing stress. This stress is necessary to trigger growth in the muscles, which occurs as an adaptive response to your body's needs. Without strength training, muscle gain would be impossible without the use of illegal anabolic steroids. Weightlifting is the most effective form of strength training because it places such large amounts of stress on the muscles. This exercise should be done every other day with a rest day in between.
Aerobic Exercise
While strength training, also known as anaerobic exercise, helps build muscle, aerobic exercise can keep fat under control and help reduce its presence on your body. This type of exercise is endurance-based and elevates the heart rate and breathing rate. It forces your body to tap energy stored in fat deposits, facilitating the breakdown of fat molecules over the course of a workout. Common types of aerobic exercise include running, bicycling and swimming -- and it should be done most days of the week for periods of at least 20 to 30 minutes.
Diet
Your diet can depend on how quickly you want to build muscle mass. Eating a reduced-calorie diet is needed to cause rapid weight loss, but it can slow down your muscle-building efforts, since calories are needed to synthesize new muscle mass. "Iron Magazine" recommends eating 18 to 20 times your body weight in calories every day, including 1 g protein for every pound you weigh. You can reduce these amounts if you are not trying to add significant size quickly, but you should still keep your protein consumption high. Eat a well-balanced diet and keep an eye on your body fat -- if it shows no signs of improvement over the first few weeks, you may need to reduce your calorie consumption in order to cut fat and get lean.
Considerations
For all the importance of regular exercise, your body also needs rest periods. It is during these stretches where stressed muscles have time to recover. If you consistently overtrain, you will deny your body the opportunity to build new muscle. Be sure to follow each day of strength training with a recovery day free of lifting. And get plenty of sleep at night.
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